“In the fall of 1933, Annemarie arrived in the east, with the means of transport most fascinating, a train that looked like a smaller version of the Shanghai-Express: the Taurus Express. In fact, the real one started from Istanbul, and bore the less exotic name “Simplon-Express”.”(Lei così amata, Melania Mazzucco)

“After a few days of train, Annemarie arrived to Istanbul. Turkey had suffered in recent decades tumultuous Changes: It was a country found and distorted, even in language. […]. Istanbul, half archaic, half modern, half western , half alien, it was really her door to the other dimension, entered the 366th day of the year, the suspended dimension, supernatural, of a life in reverse: the non-life. But at that moment she did not know it yet. ” (Lei così amata, Melania Mazzucco)

At the end of 1800, the train was the founder of tourism, the creator of travel, initially reserved for selected few, but no longer for a rare individual.

The story of the “golden age of rail travel” begins with the Orient Express, whose conception did not take place in Europe, but in the United States.
There, in 1863, George Mortimer Pullman, tired of traveling on uncomfortable trains, decided to build the Pioner, a wagon of “new generation”.

Mr. Pullman’ invention was able to grant spaces where travelers could lie down at night. Meanwhile, at the behest of millionaire Cornelius Vanderbilt, the king of U.S. railroads, the Webster Wagner had provided trains with sleepings, beds, had however confusedly arranged in the wagon.

A flash of genius with the preparation of reserved areas to sleep. Mr Pullman created the Wagons Lits. The start up did not take place for a happy event: in 1865, Mrs. Lincoln used one of these new cars to transport from Washington to Kentucky the body of her murdered husband.

Much happier, however, was the future of the wagon-lits. The young Belgian engineer George Nagelmackers, was in New York, hoping to forget his love troubles and experimented on several occasions the sleeping-wagons. Then, recovered from love pains and returned to Belgium, improved the invention of Mr Pullman by creating real and safe compartments , with the finest of privacy for the ladies.

The onset of Wagons Lits of Nagelmackers was not enthusistic, but settled around a rich contract on the line Parigi-Bruxelles, sponsored by the Belgian king (Leopold II, the richest man in the world: Congo, Belgian fact, it was his personal property). It was done! Well established on December 4, 1876 in Brussels Nagelmackers created the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons Lit, the foundation already had 53 cars. That was followed by the Plus: the car-living between Paris and Menton, and the Wagon Restaurant between Nice and Marseille.